This invention relates to record and playback means for footwear and in particular to record and playback means for footwear which includes interchangeable modules which store various recorded sounds for playback.
Footwear, most notably athletic footwear, has evolved to such a state that in addition to its primary purposes of providing support and protection for the foot it has taken on other functions. For example, one of these other known functions consists of including inflatable bladders in each shoe to be inflated by the wearer to provide for a better fit. Another known function is to include lights around the sole of the shoe or at the heel portion of the shoe to have a visual display. One example of such a shoe is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,009. Another known function of footwear is to include means for generating music for the wearer of the shoe to play music during use of the footwear. One example of such means for generating music is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,680, which is assigned to the assignee of this application. U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,680 discloses an electronic music pace counting shoe which plays music while the user of the shoe is walking or otherwise using the shoe. Although such electronic music pace counting shoe is useful, one disadvantage associated with its use is that the wearer of the shoe is limited to the music which is included in the electronic device. Therefore it would be advantageous to have a shoe which does not limit the wearer in what music can be played by the electronic means associated with the shoe. Additionally, it would be advantageous to have a shoe which allows the wearer to record music or other sounds for playback by the electronic means associated with the shoe.